History of Photography INDEX

<p>I'd really appreciate some feed back on my <a href="http://www.fivelakearts.com/wavesofgrain">history of photography index</a>. If you have any thoughts on the content or structure please let me know - thanks! -jw</p>

<p>An enormous endeavor you are working on James that looks very promising if you succeed.<br>

I wonder however if you are not overreaching what you can achieve without a network of some hundred collaborators so that the result will be superficial and never in-depth enough to satisfy visitors expectations. I also wonder if this overarching approach is not done by others already. So maybe you should reflect on a very particular profile of your initiative. I don't see that for the moment.<br>

Two very small remarks: there is not a "Paris commune" apart from the one in the 19th century (Appert) you refer to. It is not a World region therefore but an historical insurgence; Kent Klich is Swedish and not Danish.</p>

<p>James,<br>

This is something of a mammoth effort and I wish you all the best. Shall be taking my time to read all of it. As Anders suggests, you could do with a team of volunteers.</p>

<p>It is, as Anders says, a mammoth task ... and I'm gobsmacked by how far youv'e already pursued it.<br /> A valuable resource, which I've immediately added to my own web of linkages and will be recommending to students forthwith. Thank you :-)<br /> Unlike Anders, I don't think you need to worry about it being done by others. The great thing about the web (well, ONE of the great things about the web) is the opportunities it offers for plurality of information. I may not agree with everything you tag, for instance, but that is a strength: your key will be different from mine, and also from anyone else attempting similar objectives, and thus will add to them.<br /> All power to you.</p>

<p>Thank you SO MUCH for checking out the index. I've wondered if it's worth the effort, especially as many links go straight to Wikipedia anyway which is the model of collaborative web effort. But the process itself has mostly been fun as I learned new things a long the way.</p>

<p>I'm not going to comment on the whole project, as judging from the categories I searched it's still far too much in its infancy to determine if it will be as comprehensive as you (and I) hope it will be.</p>

<p>No matter.</p>

<p>Just the collection of book covers (all I clicked linked to Amazon.com) provided me some wonderful clicking. I am not presently where there are a lot of English language bookstores, and photo books are rarities near me. I'm often going to the photography section of Borders and Barnes & Noble when I hit American bookstores, where I pick up an armload of books and magazines, buy (that's what they want) a VERY EXPENSIVE plastic container of orange juice, maybe a piece of ALSO EXPENSIVE coffee cake, then sit down for hours in a comfortable chair turning pages.</p>

<p>Portland Oregon's Powell's Books, for me is like Disneyland for readers with its huge, multi-storied labyrinth of books for sale, larger than many university libraries. I hadn't been in Powell's City of Books on Burnside in Portland until two years ago, and I'm amazed at how wonderful it is, and threatened too, if I understand present publishing economics.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.powells.com/">http://www.powells.com/</a> (and click on 'locations' for a link to its flagship store, mentioned above.)</p>

<p>The bookstore people have learned something from the people who shop at home, they want to be able to 'invest' in a book after they've picked out the correct one. The 'experience' of picking out or even 'finding' a good book can be a good part of the reading experience, and like Independent Bookstores and even Chain Bookstores, the economics are looking more fragile very fast as they compete (1) with the Internet, and (2) with electronic publishing, especially with new readers: I-Pads, Kindle and the like.</p>

<p>Covers (as in the famous phrase) 'can be deceiving' and the worth of going into a bookstore is often just a look at BOTH the book covers, as an enticement; and to stand or sit and READ part of what's being offered. </p>

<p>Try that with a low-cost web seller. The visitors to Powell's often treat it as a destination, and rightly so.</p>

<p>A good photography book can be kept for a generation or several, and if it's got good photographs in it, it can be a lifetime reference. I'd subscribe in a minute to a web site, paying, that had all the world's photo books on it, page by page, but nothing is better than a good photo book with excellent reproduction and some great photos.</p>

<p>I often spent hours and hours on the Magnum Web site, just to peruse Cartier-Bresson's books . . . page by page . . . then clicked through his top 2,000 posted photos, to see that the genius's photos were not all wonders . . . . some were pretty . . . well, charitably . . . he or someone at Magnum saw worth in them, but often it has evaded me, other than getting insight into how he saw and instantly analyzed those scenes he froze in silver halide.</p>

<p>I marked your site as a 'favorite' just so I can watch it grow, and so, when I am getting ready to go to a bookstore or just want a good link or set of links, I can be reminded of what to search for. I'm interesting in getting a look inside 'Social Graces' by photographer Larry Fink; the cover photo is so wonderful, I want to see more of his work. </p>

<p>The problem is I'm a sucker for such information, and if your site gets too good, I may lose lots of sleep just as I wander through it and its links.</p>

<p>I wish you the best luck as it develops and suggest that volunteer help IS needed, to develop the categories into a serious guide for those subjects If followed through it offers tremendous promise.</p>

<p>As a source of web links, it's invaluable in its present state.</p>

<p>Just as I was about to sign the above post, I started to explore more, and clicked on the Magnum link, found what appears to be many (but not all) of the Magnum members listed, and in many or most there were links to the Magnum site, (but sometimes only through Wikipedia and its 'outside links'.).</p>

<p>But even with those extra clicks to the members' agency I began clicking on the one photo the agency identifies with each member, and was drawn to a number of them and can only continue my admiration for the agency.</p>

<p>Consider this image by Bruce Davidson, reached by going to the Magnum site and clicking on his name as a member: <a href="http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.StaticPage_VPage&SP=photographers_list&l1=0&XXAPXX=SubPanel10">http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.StaticPage_VPage&SP=photographers_list&l1=0&XXAPXX=SubPanel10</a></p>

<p>How many of you have seen this fabulous image? It's new to me, yet I met Davidson long ago (briefly as he was searching for a quality publisher for East 100th Street, when he addressed a group in New York City). I thought I had followed his wonderful work through the years, but somehow this showcase image is new to me.</p>

<p>Photographers, (at least in my case it's true), often self-teach by looking at other images -- so an index to a world of photography that can reach wonderful images is an enticing and enriching resource for a photographer (let alone academicians, publishers, and just those who enjoy looking at good photographs). </p>

<p>I wish you the best of all wishes and hope that your endeavours come to full fruition and speedily.</p>

<p>I'm hooked already</p>

<p>john</p>

<p>John (Crosley)</p>

<p>John - it's funny you mention Powell's, most of the photo books I own were bought at Powell's in Chicago - same owner?</p>

<p>James Warden,<br />Unfortunately not, I think, judging from its web site which mentions five Portland area stores, none outside of Oregon, and it mentions a 'number of warehouses and book stores, locally, nationally and internationally', but if they owned the Chicago store, I think they would have said so expressly and listed it among the stores it owns, rather than include it in some 'blanket category without sending traffic to the other store, if it were owned by the same company. <br />Maybe they're affiliated, maybe not, but the web site, Powells.com does not provide a solution. I looked.</p>

<p>john</p>

<p>John (Crosley)</p>

<p>They're not affiliated, but there is a connection: Michael Powell founded Powell's in Chicago in 1970. (Which became a notable money-sink for me during college. :-) ) His father worked with him one summer, then went home to Portland to found the more famous Portland Powell's. About a decade later, I believe Michael moved to Portland and bought out his dad, and sold the Chicago store.<br>

(The Chicago Powell's had a location in the South Loop in addition to its original Hyde Park store, but the South Loop store closed relatively recently.)</p>

 

<p>Michael - yeah! the Hyde Park store. I spent a fair amount of time and money there.<br>

John - re: HCB - I have had a similar reaction to seeing a wider array of his work.</p>

<p>I agree with the comments that I'd need an army of volunteers to fully flesh out the INDEX. But I'm really just doing this to organize my own fuzzy memories and learn new things as they come up as I go. I am not trying to compete with Wikipedia's volunteers, or Corbis, or google etc.</p>